[Editorial] 15 of the Best Books Turned Into Horror Films

As well as being a huge horror movie fan, I’m also an avid reader. My house is jam-packed full of books, most of which are horror fiction ranging from the full run of original Goosebumps (1992) books to more than a few shelves of Stephen King novels.

So, for Ghoul’s Horror Literature month, I’ve picked 15 of the best horror books I’ve ever read, which also happen to have been turned into pretty great horror movies as well!

15) Twilight (2005) by Stephenie Meyer

I’m never going to pretend that I’m not a huge fan of everything Twilight related, as the Barbies I own of Bella, Edward, and Jacob will attest to, and I devoured every single one of those books the minute I could get my hands on them.

People are quick to be judgemental of the movies (which I also love), but the books did a brilliant job of sucking you into the world of Forks, misguided teenage love, and the complicated world of vampire politics.

14) American Psycho (1991) by Bret Easton Ellis

I’m not going to lie, I will never read American Psycho ever again, but that’s because I have a very weak stomach, so I will still recommend it to every horror lover out there. Bret Easton Ellis does a great job of exploring the detailed world of New York lawyers and Patrick Bateman’s obsessive personality.

However, some of the scenes in this book are so incredibly gory and disgusting that they are very hard to forget. The book also gives us more time to explore Patrick’s character, his desires, and the thought processes which lead to his murderous actions.

13) Jurassic Park (1990) by Michael Crichton

I don’t know if you count Jurassic Park (1993) as horror or not, but considering how terrified I was viewing it in the cinema as a six-year-old, it has always stuck with me. And the book is actually more gruesome, with more characters getting eaten by dinosaurs and the chase scenes filled with even more tension spilling out of the page.

There’s a lot of scientific chat mixed in with the dinosaur action, but there are plenty of scary bits, characters running for their lives, and people who should have known better than to mess with science getting munched.

12) Bird Box (2014) by Josh Malerman

Bird Box tells the story of Malorie and her two children trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic world where you need to keep your eyes closed at all times or you’ll be driven to death by an unseen monster. Through flashbacks, we learn about Malorie’s life before the monsters appeared, and her time living with a group of fellow survivors.

Bird Box is terrifying on many levels. As well as the monsters stripping the survivors of a vital sense and leaving them quite helpless, humanity quickly starts to turn on itself, creating even more problems for those who manage to stay alive.

11) Ring (1991) by Koji Suzuki

In the first part of a horror trilogy, Ring tells the story of a journalist investigating the deaths of his niece and her friends. During the investigation, he discovers a cursed videotape, giving himself just seven days to break the curse.

Ring is a leaner story than the 1998 or 2002 movie versions, with Sadako’s backstory and reasons for using the videotape to spread her curse making a fascinating read. The full trilogy is fantastic, and Suzuki manages to make the story even scarier on the page than it ends up being on film.

10) We Have Always Lived in the Castle (1962) by Shirley Jackson

Since the death of most of their family, sisters Merricat and Constance have lived on the edges of a nearby village with their uncle Julian. Shunned by the villagers, Merricat visits as little as possible to pick up supplies and return library books. Constance is suspected of the deaths of her family but was ultimately found innocent.

Merricat tries her best to keep her remaining family safe with spells, charms, and strict routines, but when their cousin Charles appears and tries to change things, Merricat is left at her wit's end. Jackson manages to build a beautifully gothic world that almost feels like a ghost story, even though Merricat and Constance are very much alive.

9) We Need to Talk About Kevin (2003) by Lionel Shriver

A cautionary horror tale if you’ve ever thought about having children, We Need to Talk About Kevin chronicles the strained relationship between Eva and her son, Kevin. Throughout his younger years, Kevin seems to like to make life as difficult as possible for Eva, but as he enters his teenage years, he seems determined to pull his mother apart.

This book is a challenging read, purely because Kevin is so irritating it makes you want to throw the book across the room. But it’s worth it for the second half of the book, with a conclusion all the more terrifying because it feels like something that could so easily happen in real life.

8) Dracula (1897) by Bram Stoker

As classic a horror tale as they get, Dracula is the building block for so many other vampire stories and films we have these days, and with good reason. Even 125 years after its release, Dracula is still beautiful, scary, and romantic/horny in equal measure.

There are a lot of interweaving stories within Dracula, and Stoker gives them all the focus they need, allowing us to meet and fall in love with a whole cast of characters as Dracula travels across the world. Alongside this are some of the creepiest scenes ever put to paper, showing how Dracula has managed to stay as popular all these years later.

7) Horns (2010) by Joe Hill

Following Ig Perrish after the murder of his girlfriend and true love, Merrin, Horns is a tale of regret, repressed rage, and revenge. The whole town thinks Ig is to blame for Merrin’s death, but he is determined to find out who is really to blame. To make matters more confusing for poor Ig, he starts growing large horns out of his head, which cause those around him to blurt out their darkest secrets.

Horns is beautifully heart-breaking, as we learn more about Ig and Merrin’s wonderful relationship through flashbacks, with the story delving more into horror territory every time Ig’s horns grow.

6) Gerald’s Game (1992) by Stephen King

Gerald’s Game is the most recent Stephen King book I’ve read, and at one point I had to stop reading and wait until daylight because it was so chilling. After a supposedly romantic weekend goes wrong for Jessie and her husband Gerald, she finds herself handcuffed to the bed with no one to help her.

To make matters worse, trauma from her past seems determined to raise its ugly head, and there’s a certain visitor who may be made of moonlight but may also be very real. King does an excellent job of using one location to its full advantage and making us experience every ounce of terror alongside Jessie as it happens.

5) Rosemary’s Baby (1967) by Ira Levin

Ira Levin is one of my favourite authors ever, and Rosemary’s Baby combines pregnancy, paranoia, witchcraft, and Devil worship into a tight tale. The reader follows Rosemary as she moves into a new apartment with her aspiring actor husband, and quickly falls pregnant. What starts as a dream scenario, quickly turns into a nightmare as Rosemary feels like her neighbours are out to get her.

There are plenty of traditional horror elements at work here, but the parts that work best are simply Rosemary’s spiral as she tries to keep control of her life and her baby when no one around her seems to believe a thing she says.

4) Let the Right One In (2004) by John Ajvide Lindqvist

A vampire story with a difference, Let the Right One In is about loner Oskar, a young boy just looking for a friend, who bonds with a newcomer to his apartment building, Eli. Oskar has to deal with his parent's separation and brutal bullies at school, but his growing relationship with Eli gives him some happiness in his life.

However, Eli just so happens to be a vampire living with her carer Håkan, trying to survive under the radar. Let the Right One In has one of my absolute favourite scenes ever involving Håkan in a basement, which shows the more terrifying side of being a vampire that Eli has tried so hard to keep under wraps.

3) The Silence of the Lambs (1988) by Thomas Harris

The book that made both Hannibal Lecter and Buffalo Bill household names, The Silence of the Lambs explores Clarice Starling’s role in the FBI as she tries to help agent Jack Crawford solve a string of murders.

Starling’s relationship with Lecter is fascinating, and every step of the way she proves those in the FBI wrong by being one step ahead of the other agents who think they know better than her.

2) IT (1986) by Stephen King

With two different versions of IT having been released, neither of which quite captured every single element of the book, there’s no denying that Stephen King’s novel based in Derry is perfect for adaptation. When an intergalactic monster who can turn into your worst fear but favours the appearance of a clown starts picking off children, a group of friends called the Losers band together to finally destroy it.

27 years later, the Losers have to return as adults to finish what they started, and hopefully get rid of Pennywise once and for all. This book is straight-up terrifying, and every encounter with Pennywise that the residents of Derry have will leave your skin crawling. IT is one of King’s longest books, but it’s worth every page.

1) Pet Sematary (1983) by Stephen King

We’re back in the world of Stephen King for the number one spot, and this time we’re heading off to the town of Ludlow for Pet Sematary. Louis Creed relocates his family to the small town to become the university’s doctor, but when his family cat is killed on the busy road next to his house, he finds out there’s a Native American burial ground close to his property which can bring things back to life.

So when his youngest child, Gage, is also killed, it seems inevitable what Louis plans to do, despite warnings from his neighbour, Jud. The last chunk of this book, from Gage’s funeral until the last shocking line will never be beaten in my opinion. Pet Sematary is top-tier King and one of the scariest entries in the entire horror genre.

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